Matt Orlando Debuts Nicely With “A Resurrection”

The daunting task of a director taking on their first feature film can be an almost overwhelming experience. For Matt Orlando, with a well experienced and fairly well known cast this could have easily been the case.

Matt’s first feature film, “A Resurrection” seemed to be anything but an experience he would be unable to handle. I had the chance recently to speak with Matt about his debut film and the experience of being at the helm for his first feature film. Having been the writer of his film my first thought was that it must have been difficult to edit yourself and your own work. I was of the opinion that you wouldn’t want to take too much of yourself out of the film but Matt conveyed quite an opposite thought. Matt told me he found it “tougher to edit someone else’s work, for fear of not showing exactly what they had in mind for the final product. With your own work it’s easier to edit and still show what you had in mind in the end”.

Matt was unquestionably proud of his final product and well he should be. With his first film being a thriller and the genre nearly flooded to death, it can be easy for one not to feel their work measures up with some bigger budgets and bigger casts that are out there. “A Resurrection” clearly doesn’t have the budget that many of it’s competitors has, but that didn’t stop Matt from pulling out all the stops and getting good performances from his principle actors, including the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan in has last role ever before he would tragically pass from the suffering of a heart attack. I asked Matt about his time with Mr. Duncan and he told me what a joy he was to work with and talk with. He told me, “he was as good of a guy as you could imagine and actually better. We had discussions about healthy living and physical fitness, so when he passed of a heart attack i was almost hard to imagine”.

The film was entirely shot in the city of Pittsburgh which has become a relatively popular city for film makers because of the vast structurally different areas that can serve as several settings without the difficulty of traveling across states or countries.

Matt told me, “the city itself served the film so well. From the crews and local actors they hired to the residents themselves who were very welcoming and accommodating”.

Having not been intimidated by the heavy task of his first film will without question be a great cornerstone for Matt Orlando and serve his in his future endeavors well. Look for Matt in the future to be unfazed and make the films he wants and not be taken in by the massive machine. His skills will improve and that is not due to lack of skills, that is due to increasingly better casts and more money based on the faith in him that is almost impossible have when talking with him. Look for great things to come from Matt Orlando.